Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I support the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Act. Each year, tax payers across the country utilize accountants, tax software, and lawyers as they prepare their returns. For millions of low-income families, high-cost, high-tech tax assistance is not an option. As a result, the families most in need of tax preparation assistance--low- and moderate-income families, including elderly and disabled taxpayers--will fail to file their taxes or miss out on valuable tax credits. The IRS created the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance, VITA program in 1969 to assist individuals and families in submitting their Federal tax returns. For decades, this program operated predominantly with the resources and facilities of community partners. In 2007, Congress created a demonstration program awarding matching grants to VITA sites to serve additional low-income individuals and families. Since 2008, the VITA grant program has grown to over 200 grant recipients but is still only able to fund about two-thirds of grant applicants. During the 2014 Federal income tax filing season, VITA programs filed approximately 1.7 million tax returns. Of those 1.7 million returns, more than 551,000 claimed the Earned Income Tax Credit as part of nearly $2.5 billion in tax refunds that went to VITA tax filers. In addition, VITA programs improve accuracy in the return process and reduce IRS costs by e-filing.…”